# Ubiquitous items from relatively recently youngsters may not recognise **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362 "2023-03-19T15:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/181 "2023-03-20T22:02:50Z")
How does a hot lather machine work and for what purpose? ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/182 "2023-03-20T22:07:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My guess is that it’s a sharpener, for razor blades or scissors. > [@doreen](#): > > According to my husband it’s a hot lather machine - but I suspect that doesn’t really qualify as “relatively recently”. It’s a massage unit. The barber slides it over their hand between the coils (which are stretchy springs) and the motor unit and then massages the client’s neck and shoulders. My bio dad was a barber, some 60+ years ago. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/183 "2023-03-20T22:12:35Z")
How they work, I don’t know but supposedly hot lather gives a closer shave. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/184 "2023-03-20T22:16:13Z")
OK. I thought it was a piece from some board game I never played. (I knew a guy who said, of higher education, “I don’t want to be well-rounded; I want to be a dodecahedron.”) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/185 "2023-03-20T22:27:16Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > A couple of years ago my then 15 year old son and I helped a friend clean out her garage. We came across a box of 3" floppy disks. My son had no clue what they were; he didn’t even recognize them as computer paraphernalia. Just the other day we had someone installing something in my wife’s office, and he was impressed by our large floppy disk case. Then I showed him my DECTape. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/186 "2023-03-20T22:38:39Z")
Here is a picture of my Grandfather using one. [![](https://i.imgur.com/azexmM1.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/azexmM1.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/187 "2023-03-20T22:41:40Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Then I showed him my DECTape. Do you have any TK50s lying around? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/188 "2023-03-20T22:46:12Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Do you have any TK50s lying around? No room in the garage. I could probably get someone at the Computer History Museum to read them. Not that they’d want Ahl’s Star Trek game translated from BASIC to Pascal. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/189 "2023-03-20T22:49:14Z")
> [@Galactus](#): > > Here is a picture of my Grandfather using one. That doesn’t look neither like a hot lather machine nor like a neck massager, but like something for the hair. So what the heck did it do? ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/190 "2023-03-20T22:54:20Z")
It’s a scalp massager, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/191 "2023-03-20T22:54:51Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Which means they have never seen one of these: > > [https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUXAPlu-fV5oEeNuc421ROAFErVh16yxznKX7YhwG4WLOZ7VtEE1w9Tc\_v0t47jAezPu5uoORIng&usqp=CAc](https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUXAPlu-fV5oEeNuc421ROAFErVh16yxznKX7YhwG4WLOZ7VtEE1w9Tc_v0t47jAezPu5uoORIng&usqp=CAc) What is that thing? Is it… to help hold the phone up with your shoulder? ~Max ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/192 "2023-03-20T23:16:02Z")
You folk must live in warm climes I guess. Steel rims are very common for mounting winter tires here in Canada. Makes switching easier and saves the alloy rims from road salt. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/193 "2023-03-20T23:20:28Z")
Punch cards for voting are still around. They work, and it’s expensive to change out your whole system. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/194 "2023-03-20T23:32:52Z")
Maybe for local elections, but they aren’t permitted for federal elections any more. The expense of changing the whole system has already been paid. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/195 "2023-03-20T23:39:15Z")
Yep. So you could walk around and use both hands while talking on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/196 "2023-03-20T23:54:59Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Anyone remember these? Your barber used them. Yes, it’s a neck/scalp massager. Believe it or not, they’re still being made. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/197 "2023-03-21T00:04:12Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > How they work, I don’t know but supposedly hot lather gives a closer shave. They had problems… [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/F3zWP3Mrbqs/hqdefault.jpg "Hot Foamy Niles") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3zWP3Mrbqs) ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/198 "2023-03-21T00:19:39Z")
> [@Dogginit](#): > > _I can’t begin to recall how many of those I rebuilt with new pads and new magnetic tape during my stint as a radio station engineer._ I once worked for a station where the jocks had to wind new carts on slow production days. I hated it. There was no good reason for it. The station was making money hand over fist. Subsequent employers just bought them pre-wound from Fidelipac or somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/199 "2023-03-21T01:32:21Z")
1996 was hardly a time when the web was mature, especially as far as commerce was concerned. On top of that, a lot of modern day web technologies weren’t even in existence yet. Stuff as simple as cascading style isheets weren’t introduced until December of that year. For its era, that Space Jam site was amazing. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/200 "2023-03-21T05:57:36Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > You really never saw an iPod ? Loathing Apple, I have not but it says _iPod_ right on the screen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=11)